A Social History of the Peach Palm (Bactris gasipaes) in South America

Genetic, linguistic, and cultural clues about domesticated plants provide insights into the histories of the people who have developed and used them. This study examines these clues for the peach palm (Bactris gasipaes), a fruiting palm that is native to South America, but was domesticated and dispersed more widely around the continent by indigenous peoples prior to European arrival there. This project interprets the distribution of peach palm terms in indigenous South American languages in comparison to both genetic work on wild and domesticated peach palm varieties (Clement et al., 2017) as well as ethnographic work and historical information on the significance of the peach palm in different indigenous groups. In its linguistic component, this project analyzes lexical data in South American indigenous languages using dictionaries, other published materials, and communication with experts. Ethnographies of indigenous groups illustrate the ceremonial and ritual uses of the peach palm, and may provide additional information about the distribution of peach palm use practices. Finally, this project examines the peach palm’s status in the context of its historical trajectory to identify possible explanations for its lack of global importance, especially compared to other New World crops. By drawing on data and analysis from multiple fields, this project aims to look toward a more complete picture of the peach palm and the people who have used it over time.Plan II Honors Progra

Pick Up a Habit

Pick Up a Habit is a physically interactive experience that demonstrates the relationship between the strength of habits, their perceived priority levels, and the availability of mental space through a series of tote bags differing in weight, available space, and appearance. Through examining the bags and comparing them to others, a better understanding is gained of the effects that habitual actions have on their thought processes, and a person can more effectively evaluate and adjust their own habits. Habits are behaviors or actions that have become automated due to repetition. People often desire to form habits to make parts of their lives easier to focus their limited time and energy on more important tasks. Many theories relating to habits from the 19th century operate on the general understanding that the human brain has a maximum capacity for what it can process at any given moment. Habits allow a person to complete a task without having to consciously remember the process and react to it. The stronger a habit is, the less focus it requires, and the less a person focuses on what they are doing, the more their mind can explore other ideas. There are also several comparisons made across literature in these studies likening habits to textiles; the two share repetition, the ability to express oneself, and adaptability. The tote bags utilize these shared characteristics to illustrate the relationship between habits and a person’s mental capacity. The design of each bag is determined by the results of a survey administered to adults measuring habit strength and level of importance for seven desirable habits: exercising, reading books, going to bed before midnight, eating fruits and vegetables, saving money, flossing, and eating breakfast. The amount of available space in the bag is determined by the strength of the habit, with a greater score resulting in a greater usable space. Weights are added in the bottoms to reflect the level of importance. Viewers are strongly encouraged to pick up the bags and experience these varying properties

Exploring Contemporary Issues Related to Title IX and the Incorporation of Amnesty Policies

Colleges and universities have been inundated with new and changing federal guidance for Title IX compliance since 2011. Though most campuses have made significant strides in compliance with mandates, far fewer have incorporated non-required practices. Sexual assault amnesty is one practice gaining momentum as a best practice. This study gathered information from campuses that have adopted sexual assault amnesty into their sexual misconduct policies. A review of existing sexual misconduct policy documents at each of the 50 land-grant institutions was completed to identify existing sexual assault amnesty policies. The policy review was coupled with interviews of Title IX coordinators, which provided the collection of comprehensive information regarding sexual assault amnesty policy development and implementation. The information was used to design a sexual assault amnesty implementation guide. The guide is modeled after some of the existing policies and from the insight of professionals who have successfully adopted sexual assault amnesty. The implementation guide is designed to be utilized by any institution or system that is considering the addition of a sexual assault amnesty policy

Combating frailty: application of a modified skeletal frailty index in modern military and civilian populations.

Conceptualizing, quantifying, and evaluating frailty in human skeletal remains is critical to understanding and interpreting physiological health and stress among past populations. While many researchers focus on frailty in bioarchaeological samples, developing models for mortality risk and individual- and population-specific indices of stress, no current methods directly address frailty in forensic contexts. This study considers the applicability of a modified index for assessing frailty in forensic anthropology by comparing distributions of 8 biomarkers of stress (linear enamel hypoplasia; periodontal disease; caries; osteoarthritis; intervertebral disc disease; rotator cuff disorder; antemortem fracture; and surgical procedure) using the original skeletal frailty index (SFI) to a modified skeletal frailty index (SFI+) between self-identified military veterans (n=10) and civilians (n=9) from the Bass Donated Skeletal Collection. In this forensic context, the SFI+ reflects both increased levels of skeletal preservation within modern samples and medical interventive care that may mitigate frailty. Further, it implements severity scales, rather than relying on presence/absence binaries, for evaluating frailty biomarkers as low or high. Frailty results were interpreted through a biocultural and embodiment framework with the presence of skeletal frailty in veteran individuals reflective of embodied stressors experienced within the unique culture and lifestyle of the military. Mann-Whitney U tests showed statistically significant differences between SFI and SFI+ distributions overall (p\u3c0.001), with SFI (3.79±1.40) yielding higher average distributions than SFI+ (2.34±1.12). This variation in SFI and SFI+ distributions affected subsequent differences in results comparing military and civilian subsamples, SFI (p=0.243) and SFI+ (p=0.05), with civilian individuals exhibiting higher frailty than the veteran individuals when applied to the SFI+ criterion. The SFI+ also revealed approaching significant differences in fractures, with civilians having higher instances than veterans (p=0.065). While the other biomarkers did not reveal significant differences between veterans and civilians using either frailty index, differences in their distributions were observed and contextually discussed. These results support the applicability of SFI+ to forensic anthropology contexts and present an effective way of quantifying frailty that highlight complexities of modern embodied experiences of military veterans

Death, Deportation, Violence, Silence: Refugee Activism Against Precarity in Germany

In this dissertation, I analyze contemporary activist projects as they are or have been undertaken by refugees in Germany. In so doing, I have begun to build an archive of examples of a particular kind of activism that I conceptualize as refugee activism. I argue that as precariously-situated individuals in German society, refugees have entered a discursive space in which they are viewed as the newest iteration of racialized, non-German “others,” who live at the periphery of German society, and who are constructed as threats to the future of Germany and of Europe. As a result, refugee activists have used a variety of strategies to address the exclusionary means by which they and other “others” have been excluded from fully participating in German and European society in the 21st century. Through an analysis of refugee activist projects, including social media campaigns, public demonstrations, concerts, a tent action, a die-in, and more, I show how refugees expose the ways in which contemporary discourses, practices, and policies around race, immigration, and difference in Germany reify exclusionary understandings of who belongs and who does not, who is worthy of living, and even who can be considered human. Simultaneously, I argue, that through their activist projects, refugees in Germany have been able to build coalitions, declare new solidarities, and create communities, through which new ways of conceptualizing race, immigration, and difference in Germany and Europe have begun to take shape

Profiles of circumscribed interests in autistic youth

Circumscribed interests (CI) encompass a range of different interests and related behaviors that can be characterized by either a high intensity but otherwise usual topic [referred to as restricted interests (RI)] or by a focus on topics that are not salient outside of autism [referred to as unusual interests (UI)]. Previous research has suggested that there is pronounced variability across individuals in terms of the endorsement of different interests, however, this variability has not been quantified using formal subtyping approaches. Therefore, using Latent Profile Analysis in a sample of 1,892 autistic youth (Mage = 10.82, SDage = 4.14; 420 females), this study aimed to identify subgroups based on the RU and UI profiles. Three profiles of autistic individuals were identified. They were characterized as Low CI, Predominantly RI, and Predominantly UI. Importantly, profiles differed on several key demographic and clinical variables, including age, sex composition, IQ, language level, social and communication abilities, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Although replication across other samples is needed, the profiles identified in this study are potentially promising for future research given their distinct profiles of RI and UI and unique patterns of associations with key cognitive and clinical variables. Therefore, this study represents an important initial step towards more individualized assessment and support for diverse presentations of CI in autistic youth

Comparing autism phenotypes in children born extremely preterm and born at term

Children born preterm are at increased risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There is limited knowledge about whether ASD phenotypes in children born preterm differ from children born at term. The objective of this study was to compare ASD core symptoms and associated characteristics among extremely preterm (EP) and term-born children with ASD. EP participants (n = 59) from the Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborn Study who met diagnostic criteria for ASD at approximately 10 years of age were matched with term-born participants from the Simons Simplex Collection on age, sex, spoken language level, and nonverbal IQ. Core ASD symptomatology was evaluated with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). Developmental milestones, anthropometrics, seizure disorder, and psychiatric symptoms were also investigated. The EP group had lower parent-reported symptom scores on ADI-R verbal communication, specifically stereotyped language, and restricted, repetitive behaviors. There were no between-group differences on ADI-R nonverbal communication and ADI-R reciprocal social interaction or with direct observation on the ADOS-2. The EP group was more likely to have delayed speech milestones and lower physical growth parameters. Results from female-only analyses were similar to those from whole-group analyses. In sum, behavioral presentation was similar between EP and IQ- and sex-matched term-born children assessed at age 10 years, with the exception of less severe retrospectively reported stereotyped behaviors, lower physical growth parameters, and increased delays in language milestones among EP-born children with ASD

Daily living skills scale: Development and preliminary validation of a new, open-source assessment of daily living skills

Autistic individuals and individuals with a range of other neurodevelopmental conditions (NDD) often present with lower levels of daily living skills (DLS) when compared to their neurotypical peers. Importantly, lower levels of DLS have been linked to a range of negative outcomes, including lower rates of post-secondary education, lower employment rates, and higher daily support needs across autism and NDD. However, there are currently no open-source informant-reported instruments for capturing key aspects of DLS. This study describes the development, refinement, and initial psychometric evaluation of a new, relatively brief (53-item). Daily Living Skills Scale (DLSS) in a sample of 1,361 children aged 2–17 years, Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated an excellent fit of unidimensional model to the data (CFI = 0.953, TLI = 0.951, RMSEA = 0.073 [95% CI: 0.071–0.074]). The single-factor CFA model showed evidence of measurement invariance of factor loadings, thresholds, and residual variance (strict invariance) across sex, age, race, and ethnicity. Model reliability and internal consistency were excellent (ω = 0.98; α = 0.97). Conditional reliability estimates indicated very good reliability (= 0.80) for the total DLS scale from very low (θ = −4.2) to high (θ = +2.4) scores. Conceptually derived self-care, homecare, and community participation subscales also showed strong reliability and internal consistency. With further replication, the EFS has excellent potential for wide adoption across research and clinical contexts

CommunityRx, a social care assistance intervention for family and friend caregivers delivered at the point of care: Two concurrent blinded randomized controlled trials

Background: CommunityRx is an evidence-based social care intervention delivered to family and friend caregivers (“caregivers”) at the point of healthcare to address health-related social risks (HRSRs). Two CommunityRx randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are being fielded concurrently on Chicago’s South Side, a predominantly African American/Black community. CommunityRx-Hunger is a double-blind RCT enrolling caregivers of hospitalized children. CommunityRx-Dementia is a single-blind RCT enrolling caregivers of community-residing people with dementia. RCTs with caregivers face recruitment barriers, including caregiver burden and lack of systematic strategies to identify caregivers in clinical settings. COVID-19 pandemic-related visitor restrictions exacerbated these barriers and prompted the need for iteration of the protocols from in-person to remote operations. This study describes these protocols and methods used for successful iteration to overcome barriers. Methods and findings: CommunityRx uses individual-level data to generate personalized, local community resource referrals for basic, health and caregiving needs. In early 2020, two in-person RCT protocols were pre-tested. In March 2020, when pandemic conditions prohibited face-to-face clinical enrollment, both protocols were iterated to efficient, caregiver-centered remote operations. Iterations were enabled in part by the Automated Randomized Controlled Trial Information-Communication System (ARCTICS), a trial management system innovation engineered to integrate the data collection database (REDCap) with community resource referral (NowPow) and SMS texting (Mosio) platforms. Enabled by engaged Community Advisory Boards and ARCTICS, both RCTs quickly adapted to remote operations. To accommodate these adaptations, launch was delayed until November (CommunityRx-Hunger) and December (CommunityRx-Dementia) 2020. Despite the delay, 65% of all planned participants (CommunityRx-Hunger n = 417/640; CommunityRx-Dementia n = 222/344) were enrolled by December 2021, halfway through our projected enrollment timeline. Both trials enrolled 13% more participants in the first 12 months than originally projected for in-person enrollment. Discussion: Our asset-based, community-engaged approach combined with widely accessible institutional and commercial information technologies facilitated rapid migration of in-person trials to remote operations. Remote or hybrid RCT designs for social care interventions may be a viable, scalable alternative to in-person recruitment and intervention delivery protocols, particularly for caregivers and other groups that are under-represented in traditional health services research. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: CommunityRx-Hunger (NCT04171999, 11/21/2019); CommunityRx for Caregivers (NCT04146545, 10/31/2019).</p

A Trait‐Based Framework for Assessing the Vulnerability of Marine Species to Human Impacts

Marine species and ecosystems are widely affected by anthropogenic stressors, ranging from pollution and fishing to climate change. Comprehensive assessments of how species and ecosystems are impacted by anthropogenic stressors are critical for guiding conservation and management investments. Previous global risk or vulnerability assessments have focused on marine habitats, or on limited taxa or specific regions. However, information about the susceptibility of marine species across a range of taxa to different stressors everywhere is required to predict how marine biodiversity will respond to human pressures. We present a novel framework that uses life-history traits to assess species’ vulnerability to a stressor, which we compare across more than 44,000 species from 12 taxonomic groups (classes). Using expert elicitation and literature review, we assessed every combination of each of 42 traits and 22 anthropogenic stressors to calculate each species’ or representative species group’s sensitivity and adaptive capacity to stressors, and then used these assessments to derive their overall relative vulnerability. The stressors with the greatest potential impact were related to biomass removal (e.g., fisheries), pollution, and climate change. The taxa with the highest vulnerabilities across the range of stressors were mollusks, corals, and echinoderms, while elasmobranchs had the highest vulnerability to fishing-related stressors. Traits likely to confer vulnerability to climate change stressors were related to the presence of calcium carbonate structures, and whether a species exists across the interface of marine, terrestrial, and atmospheric realms. Traits likely to confer vulnerability to pollution stressors were related to planktonic state, organism size, and respiration. Such a replicable, broadly applicable method is useful for informing ocean conservation and management decisions at a range of scales, and the framework is amenable to further testing and improvement. Our framework for assessing the vulnerability of marine species is the first critical step toward generating cumulative human impact maps based on comprehensive assessments of species, rather than habitats